Pope Francis calls sexual abuse of nuns & # 39; for the first time & # 39; a problem,

The pope's remarks, which came during a press conference aboard the papal plane on a return flight to Rome from the United Arab Emirates, are because the Catholic Church is dealing with sexual abuse scandals on different continents.

"There have been priests and also bishops who have done that," said the Pope about the sexual abuse of nuns. "And I believe it's still being done, it's not something that's gone from the moment you realize it." The thing is moving forward, we have worked on this for a long time. "

Francis said that the Vatican "has suspended some clergy, sent them for this" and "solved a number of nuns" that "are very stuck here, a corruption."

"Should something be done more? Yes, do we have the will?" Yes, "he said.

Francis called the case of one order of nuns in particular, in France, in which his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, tried to take action but was thwarted by insiders of the Vatican. At that time, Benedict was a cardinal and head of the Vatican's doctrinal office.

"But when he became Pope, the first thing (he said was) brought me this out of the archives and he started," said Pope Francis.

"Pope Benedict had the courage to dissolve a female congregation that had a certain level because it had entered into slavery of women, even sexual slavery, by clergy or by the founder," said the Pope.

Last week Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, wrote an article about sexual abuse of nuns by clerics, stating that "in this last year many new newspapers veiled the veil about this tragedy, and many religious from third world countries as well more advanced countries, have started to speak and reject (it). "

"If we continue to close our eyes to this scandal – made even more serious by the fact that misuse of women also includes procreation and thus imposes abortions and children who are not recognized by priests – the state of oppression of women in the church will never change", said the article, written by Lucetta Scaraffia.

In India, a group of nuns who have spoken about sexual abuse by a bishop in the South Indian state of Kerala claims that the church is trying to transfer them to other parts of the country, in an apparent attempt to silence them.

The nuns have recently asked the Prime Minister of Kerala to intervene in their name after they have said that church officials have ordered them to leave the state.

All women who had received a transfer knowledge had supported a colleague who claimed last year that bishop Franco Mulakkal raped her thirteen times between 2014 and 2016. The incidents apparently occurred in a guest house of the St. Franco Mission Home in Kerala.